Well I saw the latest stream improvement on the Jodan and Little Lehigh in Lehigh county.The dam at 7th street is gone and now the stream above it looks like a shallow drainage ditch.The footbridge in the park along with the stone wall on one side is gone.Why did they remove the wall?The dam above fish hatchery road is gone and now it is a shallow riffle.The stretch above the dam that was flat and with some depth is still flat with very little depth.The dam at Robin Hood is now a riffle and the water above it is shallow and featureless.Now they need to come back and fix it!

"Wildlands (Conservancy) received grants from American Rivers through the Fish America Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Wells Fargo, and a time commitment from Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to undertake the project."

Preface: I have no official knowledge the project, so this is all that I will say. Out of interest I kept an eye on the work on the Jordan by 7th St. and in the park below, which the writer mentions. The wall in the park, downstream from the "footbridge"/dam was removed to restore the flood plain on the north side of the stream in that stretch. The stones that comprised the wall were used in the stream to form the footprint for an area that was then back-filled and seeded. This narrowed the stream by perhaps 20% and increased the depth in that area under moderate to low flows accordingly...not really enough to hold many trout, but it did not hold many trout previously. Likewise for the wall above the "footbridge"/dam, except in that case narrowing the stream a bit, did not make up for the depth lost to dam removal. By removing that particular dam a "swimming hole" safety hazard was also eliminated, especially the pipes beneath the "footbridge," which IMO were possibly a tragic accident waiting to happen (sucking a kid through or fast to the pipe on the upstream side). The "footbridge"/dam was the third structure removed downstream from 7th St. The contractor did a nice job on the two structures between there and 7th St. I expect that, overall, there will be some upset anglers come spring, 2014, when they see the loss of the popular, lengthy fishing holes that existed above the dams. That said, I noticed that a new, perhaps 50 to 75 yd stretch of fishable water was created by the project between the second and third structures downstream from 7th St. Some anglers will be pleased when they discover that stretch.

It will happen , hopefully , long after i'm outta here but the day will come when there are huge wars over water. If the "system" continues along the path we are on , the time will come that there will be wars over water.